


Ultimate MCU

by gladofwar



Category: Avengers (Comics), Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel (Comics), New Mutants, Spider-Man (Comicverse), The Defenders (Comic), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 07:37:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14711870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladofwar/pseuds/gladofwar
Summary: A reimagining of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as if they had all the Marvel properties from the start. Follow the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, The Avengers (Old & New) and the New Mutants as they fight for good in a changing world.





	1. The First Family 01

_Somewhere in the outskirts of California..._

It all started with a dream and an idea for Reed Richards.

He had this dream for a long time, catching glimpses of it while allowing himself some briefs moments of sleep, his head resting on the table in his makeshift lab in his dad's garage.

He dreamed of making the world a better place.

To make a world without boundaries and give mankind a place among the stars.

When everyone else looked up in the sky, ordinary people only saw something distant and unreachable. One absurdly important goal that would just get infinitesimally closer generation after generation.

When Reed looked at the sky, he saw entire worlds full of possibility and wonder and unspeakable and magnificent things. Things that one day he would see with his own eyes and touch with his own hands.

"Reed? Can you come here for a second?" The blonde girl asked as she leaned over to look at the telescope.

"Yes, I just need one moment to organize my better not—" Right as he said that, a cascade of white papers fell right from his arms on the grass. Reed sighed as he tried to pick up the sheets full of coordinates and calculations. As he tried to gather the papers as fast as he could, he saw in the corner of his eye the blonde girl bending over to help him with his task.

As they reached for the same paper he felt Sue's warm hands briefly touching his, and he gulped, freezing on the spot as he looked up to meet her blue eyes.

"Ehr...Yes...What were we talking about?" He quickly collected himself, reasoning that the opening of his blood vessels and the significant flooding of his face with a red hue was merely a neurological response.

"Oh, that." Sue picked up the last paper and went back to the telescope. "I think I found something new."

Reed quickly checked his calculations once more, and Sue gently stepped on the side to let him see her discovery. Reed hesitated as he took a moment to look at her adjusting one wild lock of her hair back under her headband. Was it a new one? If so, it really made her blue eyes stand out and...Reed cleared his voice and adjusted his glasses, mentally reciting the calculations as his eye focused on the silver object soaring through the night's sky.

"Oh…" 

"Is that the good kind 'Oh' or the bad kind of 'Oh'?"

"It's a...Uh...Good one. I think we...I mean, you found a new celestial body!"

"Really? Oh my gosh, you're not joking?"

"I'm never joking about science, Sue. According to my calculations, you just discovered a new comet."

"Did I? Oh my gosh, it's amazing!" Sue quickly sprung up and hugged the boy tightly, shaking him back and forth as the girl squealed with glee. She then realized how close they were getting and Reed noticed that the blood vessels in her face were also getting pretty open. Reed tried to mutter something as Sue discreetly pushed herself off of him. "So, I guess we should find a name for it."

"Well, you were the one to find it, so it's up to you."

"I'll think about it for a moment. Guess it will make a good college recommendation. Sue Storm: Comet Finder!" Sue struck a heroic pose, her finger pointing at the sky while flexing the other arm.

"Once we finish college, we could do so much more than this. One day, I want to go up there, Sue." A wide smile lit up his face, something that Sue didn't find adorable at all, no siree. "There are just so many mysteries up there. Did you know that mankind has only a 4% total comprehension of every scientific field?"

"Four is not a bad number. Isn't that the number of years you're skipping?"

"Two, actually."

Sue chuckled. "Yeah, you're going to miss out. The last year where everyone is counting the days to graduation, career counselors grasping at straws to make you pick a job you'll hate, the homecoming party where you can't find a date…" Sue couldn't be less subtle if she tried but the boy next to her was stuffier than his starched shirt.

"To be honest, I'm relieved. I always thought that high school was...Limiting. I always felt everything was going too slow for my tastes. I-I mean, not that you're slow, you're quite brilliant!" Reed stammered and panicked when he noticed his friend's off-putting (but quite charming pout) and cleared his voice again while adjusting his tie " It's just that I can't wait to work on real things."

"Has this something to do with that teleporter prototype? You know, the one that burned Ben's eyebrows?"

"It was just one eyebrow. And something like that, yes. Once I have enough funds we could really make something out of it."

Sue sighed. "I envy you, Reed, you know that?."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"You have so many wonderful dreams, and you got everything planned out for the future. I don't know what do do. I feel like I have a lot of responsibilities trust me. My brother can't take care of himself and my father, well, he's not going to be around for a while…" Sue tried to laugh it off but deep down Reed knew how she really felt. Losing someone dear was never easy...He couldn't help but admire her for her strength.

A strength that deserved a better life. A strength that one day could've brought them to the stars and beyond.

He gulped and said the words he knew would change their life. "I'll take you there."

"What?"

"I want you to feel free. I'll show you the Universe, Sue..." He held both her hands and a smile lit up her face. "I want to show you there's much more than this hill, much more than your house. Once you see the wonders that wait for us out there, you'll be free to choose whatever future you want. We'll just have to wait and finish college."

"Well, as long as I'm there. Because God knows, Reed, you wouldn't know how to tie your shoes."

Reed let a hearty, sincere laugh. "That's why they invented straps, Sue."

"I think I have found a name for that comet."

"Really? What is it?"

_"The Silver Surfer."_

Sue wondered if one day they would see it again among those wonders Reed promised to her.

********

_New York, Ten Years Later…_

Ben Grimm was a simple man.

He saw something that had to be punched; he punched it.

He saw a craft without a pilot; he would pilot the crap out of that.

He saw a friend in need; he would help them.

That's the kind of man Ben Grimm was.

But when he heard his friend making that offer, something crawled up his spine. He didn't feel something like that ever since last time he hopped on a plane. When you go up there enough times, you gain something of a sixth sense. Something that rears its ugly head well before a radar is beeping and telling you that someone wants to sneak up —on you and smoke you. As he threw that last punch, it was with such force that the chain holding the bag was creaking and protesting. Some would've sworn it was going to fly all the way out of the gym. That was the kind of punch a guy would throw if he felt someone or something sneaking up on him.

"Whoah, that was one heck of a punch, Benjy!" Sue chuckled as she patted on his bicep.

"So, what do you think?" Reed took his hat and placed it on his chest, wearing a sheepish smile. Ben's friend was always sharply dressed, making a huge contrast with the rest of that small, almost spartan gym of Yancy Street, and always looked like the smartest guy in the room.

Granted, he was, but that was another matter entirely.

"I 'unno, Reed. Since we wuz roommates where haven't I followed ya? But ya see this?" Ben placed a hand on his belly.

Reed tilted his head. "Your abdominal muscles?"

"It's my gut. And my gut sez...Something is off. Mebbe we're not ready."

Reed looked dejected, almost mortified. "Ben, I–"

"It's like this, Ben…" Sue took a step forward, a strong determination burning in her gentle eyes. "Do you or do you not want to make history? Because what we have right here can. And we need the best of the best to pull it off. Are you with us?"

He'll be damned. Susie really believed in this. She hadn't said a word all the time Reed has been explaining the details of the supposed expedition. Reed was like a brother to him, and so was Sue. Well, not a brother, but as close as family. He owed something to them. Also, if he weren't there to watch his back, the bullies at school would've shoved that giant brain of his in the toilet every day.

Ben paused for a second before bursting into hearty laughter to break the tension of the moment. "Okay, wow! How can I say no after that? Yer lucky your girlfriend can be so persuasive, egghead." Ben extended his hand for Reed to grasp it and he shook it with a grip that could make a man wince in pain. Reed steeled himself because, really, he couldn't ruin the moment. He waited for Ben to turn and grab a towel to nurse his knuckles. "How many are on board with this?"

"Uh...The three of us."

"Really? I thought we needed a fourth." Ben started wiping the sweat from his brown hair. "Didncha say that the government was backing us up? Yer still in touch with that, wuzzat, creepy European guy?"

"Victor, you mean? Sure, he's a brilliant mind, but he's had an accident."

"Ya mean an accident or an _accident_? Ya see, there's a big difference and when ye grow up in Yancy Street ya kin see both kinds."

"I wasn't there to help him nor did he want my help. An accident has left him disfigured, and was expelled for tampering with college property." Reed looked on the floor, his hands trembling as he held the hat. "That man deserved better." If he didn't know Reed any better, he looked like he was going to cry.

"Jeez, now I feel sorry for him. Still, I got your back, Reed. I think we should follow my gut, but my gut was always right when following ya, so it evens out." He patted his friend's back. This simple, friendly act nearly threw him off his balance and knocked his glasses out of his nose, but that at least brought him back to high spirits.

"Thanks, Ben. I promise that it's going to be fantastic."

"That's the cheesiest thing I ever heard. I see that those four PhDs of yours amounted to somethin'."

"Five, actually."

"And ya still can't take a joke."

Sue gave a small nod in confirmation of that.

********

_The Nevada Desert  
_

Johnny Storm really didn't want to be there.

His sister had promised fun, but his sister wouldn't know fun if it bit her on the neck. She said that they were going to space and yet all he could see was a big, black, somewhat creepy door frame standing in the middle of the desert. He saw literal phalanges (He tried to think about something cool: The Spartans were cool) of computers showing up endless nerd trivia monitored by even more nerds that could be interested in trivia.

And then the guys in suits. Dear God, he didn't need the guys in suits. They kinda creeped him out. They always turned out to be the villains in the movies. He was looking at Sue talking with a guy he figured was a general or something. That chest full of medals left little to the imagination.

From that poofy mustache, though, he looked like a guy that could take an afternoon to build an ungrateful puppet.

There was another suit with them, wearing a pair of sunglasses. He was a balding guy with the most prominent forehead he ever saw and a kind of sleepy appearance. If he was trying to get somebody's guard down and shove him into a black SUV, then Johnny guessed he had the right attitude at least. The most harmless suit he ever saw.

"Hey, did someone lost a little kid or something?" Johnny was almost startled as he turned to see the tallest astronaut he ever saw. Well, he was the first, but still, the man was a mountain. He was wearing a bulking and almost tacky blue spacesuit and had a pair of reassuring eyes, also blue. "Where's yer parents, kiddo?" He patted on Johnny's head, ruining minutes of hard work he did on his locks that morning.

"My sister is talking to Geppetto over there."

The man chuckled. "Ya gotta be...Yer Susie's little brother! I remember when you were just a yea high. Yer filling out, kid."

"Well, looks like you're filling out enough, big guy." He patted on the man's belly, earning a gruff grunt from the astronaut.

"Yer goin' places, kid. Granted, maybe not good ones."

"Looks like you got a fan, Grimm!" The man with the white mustache showed up, giving another, hair ruining pat to Johnny's hair while he went to meet Ben. Ben couldn't help but crack a smile at seeing the kid's grin turn into a frown. "Be proud, son. Your sister and your friend are going to become heroes." The two men exchanged a salute. "Major Grimm."

"General Ross, sir."

"How does it feel to be about to make history, Major?"

"Funny, everyone is asking me that."

"You really should be proud. You're doing a great service to your country."

Johnny couldn't decide if those stock phrases that all military guys seemed to say were just that or actually sincere. Both possibilities were unsettling.

The other man with the general offered a handshake, still flashing that sleepy smile of his. He had a firm grip, and Johnny noticed he had some circuit like glowing lines on the back of his hand.

"I don't know if we met: Agent Coulson of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"That's a mouthful."

"We are trying to shorten it these days to a possibly less threatening acronym."

"Coulson is here to spy on us." Ross tried to pass it off as a joke. A bad one but still, points for the effort.

"Technically, we are monitoring this experiment for security reasons. But yes, we're also spying on you. It's just that many of the talents involved in this project were kinda flying under the radar." He blinked. "Pun intended."

"Hope that Reed Richards knows what he's doing. To be fair, he's the only member of this Think Tank apart from Doctor Moy that bothered to show up. Tony Stark has decided to mysteriously disappear in Afghanistan. That's just poor form."

"And we've got no whereabouts of Doctor Banner as well. Who knows, maybe they ran off together..." Coulson said.

"I told you not to say that name again!" The General all tensed up, almost like he was going to take a chair and break it over something. Or someone. Preferably Coulson's huge forehead. It was the first time Coulson's unflappable smile cracked. "But enough of that." The General snapped immediately to his semi-pleasant self. "Hope Doctor Richards has put some thought about this."

"I assure you, General, I just spent a lifetime working on this. Nothing too serious." Reed showed up out of nowhere with Sue at his side. The two of them were wearing the same spacesuit as Ben. Reed was absentmindedly checking on some calculations on the holographic keyboard on his wrist.

"The contributors are going to feel safe now, Doctor Richards."

"It's just a shame that we couldn't pour more talents for this experiment. I wouldn't have minded a second opinion about this. Still, it's their loss." Reed let out a nervous laugh that left the General unimpressed.

"Once we open the door to a literal another dimension those nerds are going to flock to us like sheep."

"It's one way to put this, General."

"By the way, Doctor Richards…" Coulson reached into his pocket and took out a business card. "If things don't work out with the government, think about us. We do have an initiative or two that could benefit some extraordinary individuals."

"I'll think about it, Agent Coulson." The man shook hands with Reed and went out his merry way, eliciting another angry look from the General. He was getting used to those as well because this time he merely put his hands in his pocket and whistled on his way. Johnny was always one to follow a good example and decided to go and annoy another authority figure.

"So, is this your idea of a date?" Johnny said with his arms crossed behind his head, flashing a cheeky grin. He nonchalantly walked to Reed's side as he was checking his suit one last time.

"Pardon?"

"Come on...You've known my sister for a decade, at least. Don't' tell me that you never thought about…"

"About what?"

"That thing?"

"What thing?"

"You know…"

Reed raised an eyebrow. "Do _you_?"

Johnny opened his mouth for one long, awkward moment and raised his finger as if to ask a question, before accepting defeat with grace."I'll see myself out…"

"You do that." He could've sworn Reed was smirking as he turned around but he was an egghead and Johnny was cool, they were like from two different planets.

Johnny started following the rest of the bigwigs in the security shelters and took the time to give one last look at his sister. He didn't know know why but he felt that something was profoundly wrong. He stopped on his tracks again as he felt a slight, worrying vibration beneath his feet.

Reed turned on his communication link, built on the inside of his helmet. "Alyssa? Readings?"

"All clear, Reed." A female voice answered to Reed from the other side. "I just need some time to gather the power and we'll be ready to start off the experiment."

The Three of them stood in front of the portal as a gust of wind flew by. The sun shone against its black frame, giving it an ominous feel. It started humming as it began draining half of the electricity of Nevada to power it up. What was more important, a few hours of neon lights or a chance to change the history of humanity as we knew it?

Reed swelled his chest with pride as he was ready to make his dream a reality. To show mankind a way to the stars. To a better future. He was proud of the people that stood beside him to make that a reality.

Ben cracked his knuckles, ready for some action. Part of him hoped there really would be a scary alien with multiple jaws so he could punch all of them.

Sue checked her vitals and the others one final time. She could never be sure enough. Fortunately, the scientist had designed the most advanced life support system three astronauts could ask for. She grabbed the two men hands and took the first step towards the portal.

The strength of their bond was going to be put to the test and turn that dream one brave scientist had a long time a reality. Once they had unloaded their spacecraft, they would've been the first people to set foot in an anotheruniverse.

That was until the Earth started shaking.

The phalanges of machines monitoring the activity of the portal went crazy and filled the air with electrical screeching. The ground quaked with such magnitude that the desert itself was close to cracking in half, swallowing everyone and everything there. The bowels of the earth roared and shook, threatening everyone there with white-hot rage.

"What is it? An earthquake?!" Sue yelled as she tried to keep herself on her feet.

"That's impossible!" Reed said as he tried keeping his glasses on. He activated the sensors in his spacesuit to check in less than three seconds pages upon pages of complex calculations. "Seismic activity has been dormant in this area for years!"

"Looks like it wanted to make a visit, bring the kids…" Ben grumbled. "Could've texted us at least!"

The very ground started to crack, and a vast chasm was opening right under the portal. The already fragile instrument nearly collapsed unto itself and begun buzzing while a series of coils lit up around its entire frame. A myriad of red lights shaped like angry little eyes lit up that frame. Reed fiddled with his communicator to call Doctor Moy for some answers. "Alyssa, what's happening?!"

"I don't know, Reed! The readings are off the scale! The portal can't handle whatever's happening on the other side! Get away from—"

Radio silence.

A blinding red light burst out of it, and suddenly, a door to a new universe was opened. That small corner of the Earth was bathed in the light of another sun. As the red light shone upon their bodies, Sue realized with abject horror that their vitals were skyrocketing.

That sight immediately hypnotized Reed. He saw an entire cosmos in front of him, framed only by a red rectangle, at just a few meters from him. Planets made of glass were orbiting around blood-red suns. Clouds of living metal twisting and reforming themselves in labyrinthine and mesmerizing forms. Asteroid rings circling a celestial body at such speed that its diameter was diminishing by the second.

With a look of horror and unquenchable curiosity, he noticed that those weren't asteroids: That was a swarm.

He tried to reach that display of beauty and pure horror with his hand, those alien worlds, and unquantifiable galaxies, but it was still too hard. For a moment, he was sure that those strange creatures were looking right at him, and his world but the sheer magnitude of what was happening didn't make him deter. If only his arm were longer if only he could stretch it just a little further and touch...

"Reed...Ben...I can't see!" Sue's eyes turned pale white as she stumbled blindly. Ben weakly tried to stop her from tripping over herself, but he felt his entire body heavier than ever before. It felt like his spacesuit was being slowly filled with rocks and his knees gave up.

An enormous, roaring, bloated mass of energy erupted from the portal and was going to engulf the brave explorers with it.

"Sue, look out!" The General tried to grab Johnny. But Ross was one second too late, and Johnny leaped to his sister's aid, running faster than he ever ran. He didn't care about the enormous projectiles of energy bombarding the area so focused he was on helping his sister. Just as Johnny Storm managed to tackle Sue out of the way, one sphere of pure, glowing energy hit them both and knocked the siblings to the ground. Reed screamed in horror as he watched them fall.

The red light consumed the four, and the portal fell silent as if anything ever happened there, leaving just a crater in front of the portal.

********

Sue started to slowly come to her senses, her vision still somewhat marred as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She felt like her skin was burning and removed her helmet to catch some fresh air. The woman felt some relief with her eyesight restored and realized she was standing in a huge crater, still in the desert. "Reed? Ben? Johnny?!"

Half buried in the charred ground she saw Reed.

His limbs and chest and neck were horrifically and unnaturally stretched as he was laying on the ground. It looked like all of his bones were pulverized, his skin a mere container.

"Oh...Oh, God…" Sue took a few tentative steps towards, not daring to move him. "Reed, oh God, please don't be—"

"Sue!" The misshapen creature with Reed's face raised from the ground like the coils of a snake. His chest and arms were absurdly long while his neck was twisted in such a way that a human being couldn't survive that. Obviously, someone didn't bother to tell Reed as he held up one stretched out hand in front of him and wiggled out some tentacle-like fingers. "That's...That's fascinating."

"Well glad you like it because I'm freaking out!"

"Sue…" Reed blinked a few times and looked down at the rest of him. "Please, don't freak out…"

"What happened to you?! You look like you're somehow made of rubber."

"I think we are in the same predicament. I can't...I can't see you!" At first, Reed thought he was having some kind of concussion due to the incident and the subsequent fall, but that was unquestionably what looked like an empty space suit walking around that talked with Sue's voice. "It's like you're neither absorbing or reflecting any form of light!"

"What? I'm invisible?!" Sue hastily unclasped one glove of her spacesuit and threw it on the ground only to find no hand inside it. "Reed, I know you won't approve, but I think I'll keep freaking out!"

"Please try to stay calm even if what's happening defies the laws of physics as we know it!"

"Wait a minute...Where's Johnny?" Sue said as she turned and Reed did the same as he further stretched his neck upwards to take a better view. The two froze in shock when they saw what looked like a man-shaped bonfire coming screaming at them.

 **"REED! SUE! IM ON FIRE!"** Johnny screamed at the top of his lungs as he flailed his arms around while wreathed in flames so hot that the ground beneath him was slightly melting at every step. His voice was somewhat booming and distorted by the strange flaming aura.

"Johnny! Stop, drop and roll!" Sue tried to reach for him to calm him down but noticed how easy people that could see their limbs had it

"Wait a minute, Johnny!" The boy stopped in his tracks as he saw a giant mass of long, contorted limbs crawling towards him that somehow had his friend's face on it. "I've figured it out! You're not really on fire!"

 **"I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE SMART ONE, REED! HOW CAN I NOT BE ON FIRE?!"** He shrugged and gestured towards his new fiery look.

"Think about it, Johnny! You should be in agony or smell charring meat. It does not seem so since you have the time to complain about it."

Johnny looked at his flaming hands with a puzzled look. "I guess...Not?" He sniffed the air a few times only to smell some ozone. The boy looked a little...Disappointed by that. After that outburst, he felt pretty embarrassed at being wrong. And being shown up by Reed Richards but mostly being wrong.

Sue realized that, and if someone could've seen her, they would've seen her slapping her invisible forehead with her invisible hand.

"I think that the radiations coming from this portals have somehow transformed us into something...Different. It gave me a far greater degree of flexibility than a normal human body would allow, Sue can turn herself invisible and Johnny is not on fire. He is made of fire." Reed further stretched his torso and coiled three times around himself. He tried to return to a somewhat human shape afterward, but he felt a little discomfort around his still uneven shoulders and one still flaccid ankle dragging his foot on the ground. "Uh oh…"

**"I DON'T LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT! WHY DID HE SAY THAT?!"**

Reed went pale in shock as he noticed they missed one member of their unfortunate expedition into the unknown. "Where's Ben?"

As if on cue, a giant rock flew over the three newly superhumans' heads and crashed on the ground, pulverizing itself into thousands of little pebbles.

"REEEEEEEEEED!" A voice bellowed from the distance and when the dust settled, Reed Richards blood froze in his veins as he realized the horrible truth: That giant pile of orange rocks with broad shoulders, a huge, prominent brow and a pair of angry but still noticeably human blue eyes, wearing the tattered remains of a blue spacesuit around its waist, was his friend Ben Grimm. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!" Ben took a pair of menacing steps, and the ground trembled as he moved slowly but patiently towards the scientist. Reed tried to act rational, but the sheer menace that his friend radiated in his new form was downright otherworldly. The...thing his friend had turned into was twice as tall as a human being and covered, no, downright made of solid rock stone.

"Ben, whatever happened I need you to stay calm, I think—"

"OH, YOU THINK?! I THINK IM GONNA SMASH YA TO A PULP!" Ben raised one huge fist and Reed jumped out of the way to avoid finding himself at the bottom of the smaller crater Ben made inside their own. "YOU TURNED ME INTO A MONSTER, REED! HOW COULD YOU?!"

"Ben, stay calm! I don't want to hurt you!" Reed said as he instinctively sprung forward and wrapped his elastic body around his friend's solid rock frame to try and restrain him. Ben just roared and grabbed one strand of his malleable form.

"TOO BAD! I REALLY WANT TO!" He grabbed Reed by one stretched arm and started rotating on himself. The momentum would've turned a man of Reed's size into a projectile destined to be turned into red mist as soon as he hit the ground, but the scientist flattened his body, allowing him to float safely and land as a soft, bluish mass. Reed pulled himself to his feet and tried to keep resonating with the behemoth.

"Ben! Reed! Stop that immediately!" The air around Sue started cracking with electricity as her face was visible again. She looked with horror as she saw Ben try to land deadly punch after deadly punch and Reed barely dodging each one, contorting his body in the craziest shapes.

Finally, Reed had enough of being on the defensive and wrapped himself up around Ben, trying to restrain his movements. Ben tried to shake Reed off of him and from the look of the scientist, he was doing so.

"Hey, sis! Your mom's voice! It worked! I've never been happier to see your face." Johnny looked at his hands still wreathed in flames. "Could you yell at me too? I'd like to return to normal."

"I will later! Thanks for trying to save me, by the way!"

That was the angriest thank you, Johnny, ever heard.

"Ben, look at Sue! She's able to turn it on and off, to make herself visible on command." Reed struggled to keep Ben's arms restrained, but the giant managed to free one arm and tried to grab Reed's face. "I can transform my body to make it look human. Maybe it works for all of us! Maybe I could help you yo—"

"WELL, DO IT RIGHT NOW, STRETCH! OR I SWEAR TO GOD I—" Ben lifted a giant fist and in the time that took Reed to blink, he found out that it was just one inch from his face.

"I SAID STOP!" As Sue roared her command, both Reed and Ben were knocked off their feet and landed at several feet from each other by what looked like a pair of invisible punches slamming them right in the chest. To Johnny it looked more like an angry mom placing herself between two warring siblings and holding them by the forehead as they flailed their arms helplessly, trying to hit each other like in the movies.

"Whoah...Did Susie do that?" Ben looked as puzzled as any giant rock monster would look if it were knocked on the ground by a five-foot tall girl. As he learned many times in the course of his life, sometimes a man needed a good knocking before regaining some sense. To his horror, he noticed that it was like being hit by a speeding car...And it didn't even hurt. He barely felt it as his rocky butt was already sent flying.

Reed looked down and noticed that not only he didn't feel any pain whatsoever, the impact just left a small circle shaped bump in his ribcage. Or at least in the point where it should've been his rib cage since ribcages don't simply inflate themselves back to shape.

"It looked like a force field of some kind. We need some time to test our new abilities. Ben…" He offered one hand to his friend to help him get up. "Please...I promise that I will find a way to turn you back."

Ben looked at him for what seemed like an eternity and Reed had that look again. Reed's stoic and logical facade was cracking by the second as Ben could see in his eyes something he rarely saw from his friend: Regret, fear, and an unspeakable sorrow.

The same sorrow in Ben's blue eyes as he held up one rocky hand in front of him and realized things would've never been the same. He never noticed how much his hands weighed before but how he did and he hated it.

Ben grumbled and grabbed Reed's hand.

The four looked up to see some army helicopters come to pick them up. Johnny closed his eyes and tensed every muscle in his body, and he stopped being wreathed in flames. He then realized his clothes had turned to ash. Johnny, then, placed a hand on his head. He still had hair. Still messy but not burned. "I guess it's not the right time to ask for a pair of underwear."

"Wotta revoltin' development."

********

"This is quite fascinating, Reed. And terrifying, too." The black haired woman in the lab coat was checking four holographic renditions of the four newly transformed anatomies. Reed, Sue, and Johnny were in the aseptic laboratory, almost bare if not the built-in holographic interfaces coming out at the speed of thought and almost invisible but effective scanners that immediately checked their new bodies the moment they entered it. Two armed guards were just outside. Sue didn't expect them to not put some hidden cameras in there. At least Sue had finally some time to see the home base of this so-called "think tank" of scientists.

"Tells us something we don't know, Alyssa." Sue was pacing back and forth, turning on and off her powers on a reflex. Unbeknownst to everyone, she was figuring out how her power was working. The invisibility was a little tricky but, ironically, she was able to create shapes of different size entirely invisible to the human eye.

"You've just been turned to lifeforms this world has never seen. As far as I'm concerned you are something you don't know."

"Yeah, what would the Oracle of Delphi say about that?" Johnny said from the other side of the room, still nursing his thankfully extinguished hands. He drew some curious looks from all the presents. "Know thyself?" He blinked. "I'm not just a pretty face, you know."

"We still don't know the limits of your new abilities, so we'll have to do some tests." As Doctor Moy went on and on about some newly built testing ground for them, Sue walked off, wanting to take a breath of fresh hair until she saw New York City from the window.

The Baxter Building was a colossus of metal and concrete. A sleek, pure white fortress of science standing out like a sore thumb amidst the concrete jungle of Manhattan. Sue looked at the city from up high and realized that those bulletproof glasses were basically a prison. She could see that in Ross' eyes that the army feared them.

It was sensible, coldly logical even, but it still irked her. Her thoughts went to Ben and the fact they had just caged him like an animal because they couldn't comprehend him. While she didn't condone that outburst, at the time, Sue realized she would've done exactly the same. Besides, Ben went in there of his own volition.

She didn't feel much different than before. She was still that girl living with her aunt and taking care of her baby brother. Sure, he was sixteen now, but she was still a baby...She was still that girl that graduated at the top of her class despite her father being a criminal. She was still that girl that by a fantastic series of coincidences had Reed Richards in her life again.

Why turning invisible and creating force fields would change all that? Why would turn into an elastic man, and a human torch would change what they were? Why would that change of appearance change Ben Grimm?

Those men in uniform just didn't get that.

The persons that emerged from that incident were the same. End of the story.

"We're gonna get out of here." And with that, she turned invisible.

********

"Be honest with me, Reed." Ben Grimm was a simple man. A man that had lived everything a man could live. When he saw a friend in need, he would help him. That's what a man was supposed to do. When he looked at his giant, rocky hands asked himself 'Was this my reward?'. All those years of defending Reed, having his back, lead to this?

"I'm here, Ben." Reed was sitting just outside the cell. It had no bars but only a field of energy that was supposed to fry any prisoner with funny ideas like a moth. One thing he liked about the military was they didn't mess around. Ben had found out that so-called security measure only stung him a little when he tried to pass through it, like an angry little mosquito. Better than nothing, he guessed.

"If ya knew what was goin' ta happen...Ya still would've asked me, ain'tcha?"

"No, Ben...Not this way...I had no idea that—"

"Now that's funny. Reed Richards got no ideas." Ben started cracking his knuckles as he used only to find out he had no knuckles to crack anymore. Just rocks.

"Ben, I promised that I would help you. I will find a cure for this...This…"

"Ugly mug syndrome?" He let out a gravely phoned in laughter. It sounded more like the sound of rocks being rustled together.

"I will turn us into humans again, Ben. Even if it takes me a lifetime to do it."

There it was. That look again in his eyes. Whenever he did that, Ben felt that he couldn't be angry at the guy. That was before, though: He settled for being phenomenally enraged for the moment and call it a day.

"At least give me some technobabble of ya so I can get some sleep. Did Alyssa ever tell ya what happened to us?"

"Well, the good news is that we found other dimensions. Several others."

"The bad news I guess is everything else?"

"Our anatomy is so different from everything that evolved in our ecosystem that the only logical explanation is that somehow we swapped our bodies with our counterparts from other universes where these phenomenal abilities are the norm."

"Wow. So that means one alternate me is running around bein' pretty yet squishy in a world of rock monsters. He's a Ben Grimm, all right. Some luck o' the Irish we got."

"This could also be the mean for a cure. Perhaps your body is still out there in the multiverse. Maybe I can find it and put you back in there."

"Well, awright then." Ben sat on the floor of his cell. "Is it done yet?"

"Ehr...No."

"Then come back here when ya've done it."

********

One thing people never warned Johnny about was that everything after getting superpowers was so boooooring. After a couple of hours of just turning his power on and off and throwing a couple of fireballs (which was cool) in front of boring guys in military uniforms with poofy mustaches they just stuck him into another lab for other tests.

Was that going to be his life?

"Johnny!" A voice came calling from him from over his shoulder, and he reacted to it with all the calm and rationality a guy in his situation could use.

"OH GOD, I REGRET EVERYTHING!"

"Johnny, it's me." Sue turned visible starting from her eyes so that he could see them rolling them so hard they feared they would pop out of her skull. She stopped unraveling her invisible force field at her neck's height.

"Uh. I guess no one is giving us some clothes to turn invisible to us. Or become fire."

"Our suits kind of absorbed some of the radiations and they can adapt to our powers. Reed believes he can create some new ones, though."

"I hope it's something that makes my butt stand out."

"Johnny…" She shot him a glare.

"What? Girls love that."

Sue raised a hand to stop Johnny's tangent before she figured it out she kinda had to make it visible again."Listen, we're getting out of here."

"That's a great idea and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter but how do we do that?"

Sue held up the other hand holding up some kind of security key card.

"Wait, where did you get that?"

"Let's just say they do not train secret agents to deal with an invisible girl."

********

Agent Coulson started revving up the engine of his car, musing about that strange day and the kind of report he was going to give to the giver ups. He checked on his pocket for his smartphone and noticed that something that weighed and felt like a key card was missing.

"Oh, come on, not again! Fitz is going to kill me! Well, not kill me, but he'll pout at me and it's really awkward when he does that!"

********

"I've seen him use that to open some doors in this supposedly high tech, government-sponsored building. Guess he was here to spy on us, like Ross said."

"Wait, you don't have any clothes. Where did you hide tha—"

"Please focus, Johnny." Sue quickly hid the card again and started going off on her own, turning her back on Johnny. "Still, I think we have to get out of here as fast as we can. We have to get Ben out of that cell and lay low for a while. Just as soon the military lowers their guard. Maybe we could find some help, at least someone willing to let us use a lab. Are you with m—" Sue turned around and saw that Johnny was gone. Then noticed that the key card was gone. "Oh, for f—"

********

If someone told Jonathan Storm that he would be spending the better half of the day running away from the government on a kickass motorcycle, he wouldn't have believed them. He felt terrible about leaving Sue like that, but there's a time in the life of a man where he has to take matters into his own hands. And by matters, he meant a magic key card to escape the military, steal a motorcycle and…

Actually, he didn't plan that far ahead in the future. He figured that he would make it up as it went on.

For the moment, he wanted to feel free. Feel the wind on his face and the sounds of wheels screeching on the streets of New York. As he gathered more and more speed, he saw his hands catching fire and something wild awakened inside of him. He slowly enveloped himself in flames as went faster and then, his skin flaking off slowly as pure energy replaced it, and then...He let go of the handle.

 **"FLAME ON!"** He bellowed, and just like that, his incandescent form became lighter than air. He thrust his arms in front of him and let go of the motorcycle . As if on a reflex the boy expanded the aura of pure energy around his body, creating a sonic boom that propelled him forwards and then all the way up.

A human torch started soaring through the sky. **"HOLY SHIT IM NOT DEAD!"**

Still, it was always a good outcome.

In a matter of minutes, Johnny became a sensation on Instagram as he saw dozens of passerby taking his picture with their phone. Part of him knew that Reed and Sue and the General or whoever would've killed him for that but that wasn't important to him. At that moment he felt utterly indestructible.

"Holy shit...Is that a mutant?!"

"No, it can't be...Maybe that vigilante? The guy from Hell's Kitchen?!"

"This is not Hell's Kitchen, and he doesn't fly!"

"Yeah, but you've seen him? You can't know that!"

"Guys! It's The Human Torch! He's back!"

He didn't care much about what they were saying: At that moment he was the center of attention and he loved that. He was moving so fast and everyone down there looked so small, like a collection of tiny dots going on about their own boring lives and he was up there, leaving a trail of pure flames above them. The people loved him for that, even if it was going to be only for an instant.

He felt the cold wind biting his face, but his energy body made it feel more like a warm breeze.

All of his worries evaporated, and with that, he started to laugh louder than he ever did.

He felt powerful.

He felt free.

He _was_ free.

That was when another earthquake came.

**"OH COME ON, NOT AGAIN!"**

He heard an explosion right in the center of the street and amidst the smoke and rubble an enormous, scaly thing emerged from the ground, his horrid claws grasping at the asphalt to better pull itself out of the earth's crust. A ninety feet tall green monster, his head and arms covered in extremely sharp looking spikes, was right in the center of Manhattan, casting its menacing shadow. The creature towered on everything but the tallest skyscrapers. His eyes had no light and looked like a pair of milky white pits that hid an ancient, alien and brutal intelligence. The citizens of New York didn't even have the time to pull themselves out of the rubble and panic for its big entrance that the monster opened his cavernous maw and roared with such force to lift in the air several cars, sending hundreds of people running for cover. One of the vehicles was about to hit a young Pakistani woman pushing a stroller and without even thinking Johnny put his arms in front of himself. He squeezed out of himself every last drop of energy to conjure a fireball that shoved the car out of the way right as the mother panicked and picked up her baby to try and shield it with her own.

To her immense surprise, the woman wasn't dead. She raised her head she saw the figure of a defender wreathed in flames, standing between her and the monster.

"I'm here now…" Johnny turned towards with a reassuring smile.

The woman nodded with tears of gratitude to her savior and ran away as fast as she could. She hugged her baby and thanked God as she got out of the way.

Ok, that was step one.

Now he had to do the rest.

Worst case scenario he would've died. No big deal.

********

_Somewhere in the depths of space…_

Their fleet was a graveyard.

The woman had no illusion about it. Just a long trail of failures and metal and hate. If there was one thing her people still had was the sheer hatred they felt. It was a good thing: Hate was a weapon. Everything started with a weapon. One man wielding a weapon could carve an empire by itself. An empire that would've made the infinite, uncaring stars weep with blood.

It was the only thought that kept her warm at night.

As she stood in the darkest bowels of the mothership after being escorted by the cold sentries, the woman was waiting alone in the throne room. She reminisced about that place: She had seen it at its prime, shining with the literal and metaphorical light of her people. The loneliness of that place was something leaders had to grow accustomed to it. She never questioned her orders and respected the burden of command. Never shed a tear for what she had lost.

Four green lights shone in the infinite darkness and she kneeled at that sight. The eyes of the Supremor were upon her.

"Rise, daughter…" The voice whispered, their tone soothing and yet as strong as steel, sounding like a thousand people speaking at once, both male and female.

"Command me, Supremor."

"The signal, daughter...It is time…For you to act."

"No...No, it can't be!" The woman raised her head to stare right at her leader's otherworldly form. "But from where?"

"A blue planet, forgotten, lost until now in the fog of ages...They too have opened the way to the stars."

"Could that be…?"

"Yes...Our old, testing ground. A new species evolved on it. They too have completed the great work." Green liquid spilled on the floor, forming a series of concentric circles and from the innermost one, it emerged a hammer with a black diamond at the center of its head. "Take this, daughter. Our last Universal Weapon." Another weapon emerged at the opposite side of the hammer. It looked like a couple of triangles joined at their respective tip. "Our last Eternity Forge. May their power guide you and their might aid you."

At that ancestral sight, the woman finally dared to feel hope again. She raised and grabbed the two weapons, crossing them over her chest. "Thank you, Supremor."

"Go, daughter...Our, dear, Hala. Our _Accuser_."

Author's Notes: Well, here we are. I had this idea for a long time, but better late than never sa they say. I've been a Marvel fan ever since I learned o read and I never stopped since then. My dad passed to me his old X-men and Fantastic Four and I was hooked. When the marvel Cinematic Universe started we were both thrilled and we loved almost every movie. This is just my tkae on how things could've been if Marvel had the rights of all their properties. Of course, I do understand the situation and, to be fair, I had this idea before I learned of the whole Marvel-Fox deal. Still, I hope you'll have fun reading this as much as I had fun writing it.

For those of you reading the comics, you can see I took some elements of Ultimate Fantastic Four (underrated) and Marvel Season One (Even more underrated) but as you can from Hala the Accuser's presence things can and will get crazier. As a wise man once said: "Excelsior!"


	2. The First Family 02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the four fight their first enemy, find a codename and meet new allies

_Stanford University, Five Years Ago_

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!"

As Sue turned towards that bona fide roar, she wondered if they'd hear that to the next state as it was that loud. She tried to finish at least one more paragraph but she was too curious about that outburst. Professor Elder was a small but passionate man, all right. She got up from her table and brought her laptop with her as she tried to take a peek in the hallway where all that fuss was about.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!"

"Please, stay calm, Professor Elder." Sue recognized the dean, an unassuming black man with a bald head and a small bead. "The students are going to—"

"OUR STUDENTS WILL AND SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS! YOU'RE GIVING UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!"

"Professor, please, your theories have been repeatedly discredited. If only you were rational about this—"

"THEY ARE WRONG! EVERYONE IS WRONG! SUBTERRANEA EXISTS AND YOU!" As he pointed his fat, wart-covered finger at the Dean, Elder hesitated for a second as if he waited for everyone available to see the scene in its entirety. "YOU HAVE CONDEMNED THE HUMAN RACE TO MEDIOCRITY!"

"Harvey…"

"MEDIOCRITY!" He screamed as he stormed down the hallway and practically running with heavy steps towards the front door, ready to never return. Professor Elder went out of his way to knock a stack of papers from the hands of poor students whose only crime was just passing through. She started running to catch with the Professor. and she had to admit that for such a short, stocky man he was incredibly fast.

"Ehm...Professor…?"

"WHAT IS IT NOW?!" The man looked to his right and at the sight of Sue's practically terrified face, something in him just deflated. The raging little man cleared his voice and lowered his head in shame. He picked up a handkerchief from his lab coat's pocket and started pretending to clean his coke bottle glasses. "I'm...Sorry for that outburst, Miss Storm."

"I...I just wanted to tell you that your echolocation technology is truly ahead of its time."

"Oh...Glad someone else understands. If only those FOOLS did!" He made sure one last time to be heard as he screamed that word right in front of the door. "Mankind dreams of the stars and even other universes but has no idea what lies beneath its feet, inside our very planet. There are whole continents, filled with creatures that have evolved to never see the light of day but, alas, Stanford University hates new discoveries and they are adverse to daring! What would science be without brave hearts and sharp minds, Miss Storm? What would we be if we didn't have the power to strive and conquer?"

"It wouldn't be a life worth living, Professor."

The man smiled and even if his teeth were short and sharp, it was a rather endearing sight. He extended his hand towards Sue. "Please, I hope you continue with your research. That dissertation on the use of force field technology applied to microsurgery was really fascinating. Good luck, Miss Storm. They don't deserve you here."

Sue shook his hand. "And good luck to you, Professor."

And with that, he left. Sue sighed at seeing such a brilliant mind losing himself and possibly his career in a fit of anger. Men made mistakes, though. If they didn't, they wouldn't be men. She wondered if they would ever meet again.

She went back to finish her work until she stumbled upon that student still trying to pick up his papers. Sue bent over to help him gather him and for a second their hands brushed. They both stopped for a second and Sue slowly raised her head to meet his gaze. She saw a timid smile and the same tacky glasses she loved.

"Reed?"

"Sue?"

* * *

When she saw that sight and the two smiles mirroring each other, they both felt young again.

_New York, Six Minutes after the giant monster attacked_

"You're telling me that there's a giant monster out there, Johnny is missing and you stole something from a secret agent?"

"Well, if you put it that way it sounds terrible." Sue tried to not look Reed in his eyes as she focused on putting back her spacesuit as methodically as possible. Mostly to distract from the ever-growing desire to find her brother right now and punch him in the face.

"Actually, no, that last part was quite impressive."

"Really?"

"Yes, I would've absolutely did the same." Reed stretched one arm to grab a contraption that he instantly cobbled together to another. All Sue could see was Reed wrapping up his hand around them several times and then it was done. "But now it's not important. What's the plan?"

"Save Johnny, stop the monster."

"I like the plan. Good basics." Reed looked around and spotted a ventilation duct. "There you go. You know what's the most likely outcome if one would happen to actually take that passageway, Sue?"

"It would collapse because they're not built to house humans. Also, they're too tight." She smirked as she saw exactly where he was going with this.

"Fortunately, that just became a non-issue." Reed removed the panel and molded his body in a thinner, narrower form as he slid inside the opening. He kept his head in the room as the rest of his body slowly disappeared, aided by his long neck in the task. "I'll need just the time to get Ben and then we're ready to go." He pulled one arm out of the vent and gave the contraption to Sue.

"What is this, by the way?"

"An electronic door opener. It should be able to make our escape by removing the electronic locks with a generous amount of kinetic energy."

"It's a bomb?"

"You're right if you put anything in a certain way it sounds terrible..."

"Reed!" before she could say something else he was gone. "Dammit." Sue looked at the bomb and a drop of cold sweat crossed her brow. She very carefully placed the bomb on a nearby desk and went back to the window, following the trail of smoke and police vehicles the monster was leaving in its wake. For every minute they wasted there some lives could be lost and the thought was tearing her from the inside.

Without hesitating, she picked up a chair with her force field and aimed at the window. Just one good shot and she might've been able to break it and get out of there and…

"Sue, what are you doing?" The woman turned to see Alyssa Moy behind her just as she was about to launch her makeshift weapon and make her glorious escape. Awkward.

"Getting out of here, what do you think?"

"And then what? Jump out of the window, create a force field to not break your bones in the fall, help Reed to make Ben escape and fight a giant monster mano a mano to rescue your brother?"

Sue blinked. They did tell her Alyssa was smart. "Yes."

Alyssa sighed, shaking her head. "Ross is not going to like that, you know?"

"I don't care what he thinks." Sue took another look outside and this time she could see the white of the monster's pale eyes getting closer. "New York needs us. We are the only ones that might be able to make a dent in that thing."

"Do you guys even have a plan or you're just hoping to punch it until it gives up?"

"We'll make it up as we go."

"Sue…" Alyssa removed her glasses. "You guys have just become something the world has never seen. If you die against that thing, the world will lose something wonderful, one of a kind…"

"Every life is. That's why we did what we did. For all the people out there. If we don't use these gifts for them then we are not worthy of those powers." She started to slowly levitate the chair towards the scientist. "f you don't want to help us, then get out."

"Calm down, Xena," Alyssa smirked and politely moved out of the way. "What I'm trying to say is that you'll need a ride if you want to get there fast." Alyssa opened up a holographic screen and pressed a few buttons. A mechanical voice said, "Access Granted."

"What's that do?"

"Let's just say I didn't get into this think tank for my sense of humor and looks..And we need to test this baby out, don't we?"

* * *

Ben Grimm was still sitting in his cell. He felt like a jerk for leaving Reed with those words but he still wasn't ready to forgive him. Maybe he wouldn't ever be able to. Still, he wanted to at least talk about it some more, hear his justification...Anything to not make this an elephant in the room for the rest of their lives. It's not that Reed would pop out of an air vent on the ceiling so they could talk at least come to an understanding.

In fact, he came from the one on the wall. "Ben!" Reed screamed as he burst out of the vent.

"Jeez, Stretch. What are we doin', rehearsing Die Hard? Is There some Germans to punch?"

"Close. An unidentified hostile life form has emerged from the ground and is rampaging through New York."

Ben blinked. "Yer messing with me."

"I've never been more serious in my life. We have no idea where it came from but we can't let it rampage through the city." Reed stretched his arms and started fiddling around with the commands of Ben's cell.

"What are ya doin'?"

"Getting you out of here. We need you if we want to neutralize that monster."

"Oh, yeah? And what makes ya think I wanna?"

"Come on, Ben…" Reed pinched the bridge of his nose. "I told you that I'll find a way to turn you human again. And I will. But right now we need that strength of yours."

"Well, as soon as it can ta almighty Reed Richa—"

"Johnny is out there, Ben." Reed bit his lip as the electronic lock still refused to accept his password. He always worked better without a time schedule, especially one that tight.

Ben instantly stood up in his cell, making it tremble with heavy steps as he approached Reed. "The kid?"

"Yes. He's out there and there's a strong possibility he's under attack. Alone and with powers he barely knows how to use."

"What...How did he—?"

"He sneaked out. The boy is full of surprises."

"Dammit'. I told him he was goin' places but that's just ridiculous!"

"I'll need more time to encrypt this lock. Assuming you're with—"

"Stand aside, stretch. I'll think 'bout that." Ben simply walked through the forcefield and all it did was to slightly charr some of the stones on his shoulders. The cell's circuits simply sizzled a few seconds and turned off, letting some smoke out.

"You could've come out anytime you wanted."

"Yeah. And now I really wanna." Ben slammed his fist on the palm of his other hand. "So? Where's this monster o' yours?"

Reed? Can you hear me?

Reed reached for his suit's communicator. "Sue? Where are you?"

"I found us a ride."

* * *

Fighting a giant monster wasn't a perfect science.

Sure, Johnny's aerial maneuvering needed some work but he dodged those car wrecks the monster was throwing just fine. Still, the creature was unfazed as each and every one of his fireballs failed to penetrate its hide. What was really worrying, though, was the fact that unless Johnny managed to gather its attention with a fireball or two, the monster just keeps marching relentlessly towards The Baxter Building. No matter whether he bombarded his back or pelted his belly with fireballs, the creature just didn't want to slow down.

One thing was certain, though: If Reed, Sue, and Ben were still there, that thing had to march over his dead body to get to that place

 **"HEY UGLY! COME HERE!"** Johnny flew around the monsters head and left a labyrinthine trail of fire around its head to distract it but the monster was still focused on the Baxter Building. **"THAT'S JUST RUDE AND YOU KNOW IT!"** With that, he threw a fireball at the monster's eye and this time, it felt that. He turned slowly towards Johnny and opened its mouth, letting out another horrendous roar, its sheer force nearly knocking Johnny out of the air and sending him flying towards a nearby building. **"AH! GOT YOUR ATTENTION, DIDN'T I?!"** He tried another flurry of fireballs towards its eyes again but the monster raised his hand with alarming speed and parried them all. He then swatted Johnny away with the back of his hand, smashing a fire hydrant and soaking him with water.

As he laid with his back on the ground and was being soaked with public water, Johnny realized that the sheer humiliation hurt more than pain itself. But really, the pain was the worst.

Johnny tried to get back up to his feet but he only managed to crawl. He concentrated as hard as he could but managed to ignite only one hand. "Come on...Come on!"

Meanwhile, from the same chasm the monster had come out, a swarm of skinny, goblin-like creatures with big, bulgy eyes and yellow skin stormed out. There so many that by the force of number they managed to carry on top of their pile a makeshift throne made of junk and metal pieces. It sat on it a small man wrapped in green tatters with short greasy hair, wearing a pair of blue protective glasses and holding a scepter. That too looked like it was built from scraps but the creatures followed it every time he waved it around.

"People of New York!" The man bellowed as the mountain of little creatures paraded him down the streets. "For too long you have ignored what was lying beneath your feet! For too long you have plundered the soil, uncaring of its people! No more! The tyranny of the surface world ends here!" Some of the creatures left the humongous pile and stormed the streets. Johnny tried even harder to make his power work before they hurt any civilian. "The Mole Man says no more! The surface world is going to pay for its hubris, starting for that monument of your arrogance! The Baxter Building! Giganto!"

The monster roared and turned towards its master, leaning forward to listen to him with almost puppyish devotion.

"Destroy the pretenders! So says your king!" Johnny saw the Mole Man's scepter lit up and the monster followed its command. It started to downright skip towards the Baxter Building and Johnny outright screamed of rage, managing to light up only one half of his body. He closed his eyes, waiting for a miracle…

...That came in the form of a giant rock monster dropping on the (bigger) monster from the sky.

**"IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!"**

Ben smashed both fists on the monster's head and the creature let out a long whine before stopping on its track and nursing his head. Ben landed on the street, leaving a crater in his wake. As he noticed the droves of people coming out of their homes to not get smashed with them by a giant monster, he raised his hands and tried to calm them down.

"All right, people. We're here now. Just stay calm an'—"

"The monster's got babies! Run!"

Ben sighed and deflated. At least they were getting out of the way.

"Hey, Ben!" Johnny shouted at the forlorn giant. "You'll always be the most beautiful sight I had all day."

"Now I'm regrettin' comin' back for ya." Even if he said that he was smiling.

Johnny looked up and saw one of the sweetest rides ever: It had the chassis of a stealth bomber with a sleek silver paint. There was four sphere shaped cockpits from two of which descended Reed and Sue, enveloped in one of her force fields. Johnny noticed that all three of them were still wearing their spacesuits from that fated experiment. Sue ran out of the energy bubble and lunged at her brother to hug him tight.

"Hmmm...Susie? I'm kind of naked." He quickly shook his arm to put the weak flames out.

"I don't care. I've seen you in diapers." She pulled him closer, caressing his long blond hair. "And you're soaking wet!" He hugged her back and for just a brief second, the boy wanted to stay like that and forget that crazy day he was monsters and dangers, just him and her. Like that really old song, you' can't always get what you want. He let go of Sue and effortlessly wreathed himself in flames. The four of them now were standing right in front of a very pissed off giant monster that had just recovered from that blow.

"So...Any plans?" Johnny said with literal fire through his veins.

"Suppose' I punch it again." Ben cracked his neck.

"Johnny, you were the first to see it." Reed stretched his neck out and got right into Johnny's face. Even if lived a hundred years he would never get used to that." You got any info that can help us?"

"Yeah? You see that?" He pointed at the mountain of little yellow monsters. "On top of that throne? There's its boss. He's got some kind of control rod thingy."

"Are you positive?"

"And he thinks he's cute. He's got a name. The Mole Man." Johnny snickered.

"Then I guess someone can snatch it out of his hands." Sue and Reed exchanged a knowing smirk as the woman turned invisible.

"Johnny? You'll be our aerial support. Try to distract the creature at my signal."

"You know, it really hates when someone messes with his eyes." The boy lit a small flame in his hand and then closed his fist.

"Yer good at messing with people, kid."

"And your good at punching monsters, so keep it up." Ben exchanged a reluctant fist bump with Johnny as the boy took off and started annoying the monster again. The creature sounded like it was downright tired of dealing with the guy. He tried to squash him again with a backhand strike but this time Johnny had figured it out its pattern.

Sue was getting up close and personal with the swarm of little yellow monsters. The creatures looked gangly and sickly but raised enough mayhem. When she saw them harassing a group of civilians that tried to fend them off with a metal tube, she didn't want to take any chances. She grabbed a wooden plank and started swinging left and right, clonking a few of them on the head. The civilians managed to take care of the rest and Sue snaked out of the way, resuming her mad ash for the throne.

"Wait, what happened?"

"I didn't see anyone else…"

"It means it worked," Sue smirked as she jumped on the pile of monsters still carrying their master with them and started attacking the ones leaving the pile before they swarmed to the streets like their brethren to hurt someone else.

After downing a couple more one of the creatures turned and snatched her weapon away, shrieking in rage at her as it snapped the wooden board in half.

Sue took a few steps back and realized the creatures were sniffing the air and wiggling their pointy ears at her. All of the creatures got in a somewhat ordered formation and started staring right through her invisible silhouette. "Of course, Sue. They came from the underground. They don't need to see. You knew it couldn't be that easy."

"Who dares?!" Shouted the man sitting on the throne. "Who dares to hurt my subjects in their rightful task?!" The monsters completely dismantled the pile and carefully placed the throne on the ground as they formed two opposite rows. The Mole Man's scepter whirred and buzzed towards Sue as he took a few steps forward and the creatures kneeled. "No one can escape the Mole Man' sight! Reveal yourself, you weird creature!"

Sue sighed and uncloaked herself. She was pretty annoyed at being called like that since no person commanding a horde of underground monsters had any right to call anyone weird, thank you very much. Sue started walking among the hissing creatures, steel in her gaze, ready to smash that little man with a forcefield and grab his scepter. As a show of utter defiance, the woman placed one foot over the throne, drawing out another hissing session from the creatures. She took a long look at her enemy and that warty little man dressed in tatters looked strangely familiar…

"Wait...Doctor Elder?!"

* * *

"All right, let's test this out!" Reed stretched out his torso and covered the whole width of the street. He wrapped his arms around a nearby lamppost and did the same with his legs with another on the opposite side. "Johnny, now!"

"ON IT, REED!" Johnny flew up right to the monster's face and shot one burst of pure white light from his body, blinding the monster. It covered its hurting eye and stumbled blindly on its huge feet until it tripped on Reed. The monster fell and for a brief moment, it regained its sight...Only to see a rock giant reading an uppercut aimed right at its chin.

"Hey there!" Ben was downright beaming as he unleashed a devastating punch on the monster's face, sending it flying and overturn the creature with a single blow, his back smashing on the street. The monster let out one long, pitiful whine as it was enveloped by a giant cloud of dust and debris. "Well, look at that. I'm good at punchin' things!"

"Giganto!" The Mole Man turned towards the fallen monster with a look of extreme concern. "What have you done to him?!" The Mole Man pointed his scepter at Sue.

"Doctor Elder." Sue raised her hands and tried to come forward as slowly and calmly as she could. The creatures hissed but she wasn't deterred. "Please, Doctor Elder, tell me what happened to you."

"Call me Mole Man, now! Doctor Elder is a faded memory! How can you remember that name?"

"I was one of your students at Stanford! Do you remember Stanford? It's me, Susan Storm!"

"S-Susan Storm?" The Mole Man seemed to calm down and lowered his scepter. It was still whirring so Sue kept a safe distance from it. "I'm almost blind but I do recognize that name...And your voice...So gentle. What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same! Unless you found that...Subterranea you mentioned, right?"

"Yes! Yes!" The snarling supervillain turned into an enthusiastic man of science in the span of a second. "I have found it! It was even more grandiose than I could ever imagine! These creatures, my subjects, they had no idea it existed another world just above theirs. But they believed me! They didn't shun me for my ideas or my appearance and I do not shun them. These are my people and I'm their king! And when they heard how their king was treated...Oh they were furious, Miss Storm!" The creatures hissed with hate. "And now we're here to make them all pay, starting with the Baxter Building! A monument to the surface's world arrogance!"

"I suppose it's not a good time to say that I'm part of it."

"Oh." The Mole Man looked incredibly disappointed and lowered his head as the creatures started swarming Sue.

"Johnny? What are they doing?" Reed stretched his neck as far as he could, looking for Sue.

"I think there…" Johnny flew a little bit higher and narrowed his eyes. "Talking, I guess." He shrugged. "By now she should have kicked his ass."

"Maybe she's trying to reason with him." Reed turned his head. "Uh oh."

"I officially hate when you say th—Woooaaaaahhhh!" The giant monster had recovered from the blow and turned to grab Johnny and started squeezing him hard. Johnny concentrated and tried to burn his hand but only managed to make his scales sizzle a bit. Reed immediately wrapped around its wrist and tried to pry its fingers open to free his teammate but he wasn't strong enough.

"Awright, ya piece of garbage, it's round two!" Ben lunged at the creature and landed a few solid punches on its face.

"Doctor Elder...I'm trying to reason with you." Sue said calmly as she conjured a forcefield around her. The monsters started to pound on it to break it. She trusted on its strength but she was getting so tired and the sight of the monster waking up and grabbing her brother wasn't helping. "Please, be better than this! You're not the monster that the world is convinced you are. And neither are your subjects."

"You really...Think that?"

"Look at us, Doctor Elder. I'm an invisible girl, my brother turns into fire, Reed is elastic and Ben is a giant made of rocks. I think that the world can be ready for you." Sue took a deep breath and lowered her force field. Doctor Elder raised his hand to stop the monsters to overwhelm Sue. The woman offered the would-be conqueror her hand. "Please, Doctor...Come with us. You are brave enough for that."

With that, Doctor Elder let go of his scepter and grabbed Sue's hands, a small tear crossing his smile.

Meanwhile, Johnny had found out that his flames were hot enough to burn through an ancient giant monster scales. What he didn't know was they don't like. Giganto screamed and threw away Johnny like a puppet. **"NOT AGAIN!"** he screamed as Reed turned into a giant net to catch him. The monster started his rampage again and he didn't care for anything in its path and before they knew, Giganto was about to crush Sue and Doctor Elder. The doctor raised his scepter and it emanated a red light that made his subjects hiss and shriek but the monster was still going, causing the yellow goblins to scatter in the streets. Sue threw her hands up in a futile attempt to defend herself and the doctor.

The woman closed her eyes and felt her head extremely light as she heard a loud thud.

Then, silence.

She dared to open her eyes again only to see Reed's face. "Looks like your force fields are much more powerful than we thought." He said with a proud smile.

Sue looked up and couldn't help but laugh in relief and for the utter madness in seeing a giant monster smooshed against her forcefield like an overgrown bug stuck to a windshield. She laughed and laughed again as she saw the monster trying to pitifully break her forcefield and even slobbered a little on it. She heard the sound of thunderous applause all around her and knew that the day was saved.

In that moment she guessed she would've made a fine superhero, all right.

Soon afterwards, the four were approached by a veritable army of journalists while Giganto was chilling out at Central Park. The fearsome monster was downright cowed and not a threat anymore. Even the fearsome warlord, The Mole Man, didn't look like one anymore but a quiet, unassuming man sitting on a bench.

"What will become of me now, Doctor Richards?"

"We could use a man of your talents, of course. With us, you'll find a platform to talk about your ideology and discoveries. Maybe the Baxter Building won't be a 'monument to arrogance' if you're a part of it. Perhaps you can be the change you wish to see."

"Eh." Elder chuckled. "Maybe if you'd provide me a lab, possibly in your darkest basement, we'd be off to a good start."

Johnny put out his flames and grabbed a shirt or a pair of pants to at least look presentable for their interview. Of course, Johnny let the cutest journalist out there to let her interview them, a brunette, short-haired woman with a pleasant smile.

"Jillian Jones, Spotlight on New York. Can we steal five minutes of your time?"

"Even more than five, Jillian." Johnny drew a million dollar smile and drawing in return an eye roll from Reed and Sue. The woman turned towards her cameraman and signaled him to start.

"It seems like New York has just been saved by four incredible personalities but who are they? Where did they get their powers? Let's find out!"

Reed looked into the camera and to his surprise, he completely froze. He tried to stammer something out before Sue stepped forward to help him. "He's Doctor Reed Richards, I'm Susan Storm, this is my brother, Johnny—"

"John Storm! And if anyone's asking, yes: I'm single."

Jillian rolled her eyes with the rest of the team following right after that. "Rrrrright...And what about you, sir?" She pointed her microphone towards Ben. "What's your name?"

Ben couldn't help but look around and see that everyone around him, even if he had the metaphorical spotlight on him, was downright creeped out by his appearance. That moment he realized what he was and how most people, maybe all people, would see him from then on. "I'm a...Thing."

"Um...What?"

"He's Ben Grimm! He's The Thing! It's a codename!" Johnny interjected. "We all have one!"

"Excuse me?" Reed asked.

Sue pulled him over. "Just roll with it. I don't know either."

"Good old Ben Grimm! _The Ever-Loving Blue-Eyed Thing_ , for friends and close acquaintances." Ben cracked a smile. He liked the sound of that. "My sister here is The Invisible Girl!"

"Woman!" She didn't know what got into her but after stopping a giant monster on its track she felt she deserved some respect.

"Er, yeah, _The Invisible Woman_. I'm _The Human Torch_ and our intrepid leader here is _Mr. Fantastic_!"

"All right, Mr Fantastic!" The woman placed her mic in front of Reed who stepped forward and despite the apparent nervousness tried to look his best. "So, who are you guys? A superhero team? Like the Invaders?"

"It would be more accurate to think of us as explorers, scientists and adventurers. And superheroes when necessary. We received our powers in a fortuitous incident and we stepped up when the city needed us."

"Modest and brave, our Mr. Fantastic! And does your team have a name?"

"Well, I never thought about—"

"The Fantastic Four, of course!" Johnny intervened once again. "No need no more!"

Personally, Reed would've liked to call themselves The Challengers of the Unknown but he liked the sound of that. "Fantastic Four it is." He whispered.

* * *

"I can say you're a man that gets results, Doctor Richards." General Ross was pacing back and forth, trying to study the new super team with skeptic eyes. "I can't say that I approve you guys going off without any kind of authorization." He shot a glare to Alyssa who simply smirked in defiance. "And that maniac living in your basement? Not a fan."

"I assure you he's harmless, General." Reed said as he adjusted his glasses. He had found out earlier that he could simply adjust his eyesight with his new powers any time he wanted but he insisted on keeping them sometimes. They gave him a distinguished look. "Doctor Elder's researches can help us figure out more about the world we live in before we can find others."

"Yes, well, that experiment of yours was something. Perhaps you can be trusted. After beating that monster there was nothing to stop you from going to Canada or some other place." He glanced out of the window and was pleased like the rest of them that New York was still standing.

"We just did only what anyone else would've done. We have a responsibility. There's a whole new dimension to explore and I made a promise to my teammates that I would not stop until I unveiled its secrets." Reed turned to look at his teammates but still couldn't look at Ben without feeling shame. Still, he was a man of science and he wouldn't have stopped until he found a cure. Ever. That was the only the beginning.

"And what about the kid?" Ross pointed at Johnny, who looked behind him only to realize that yes, he was the kid.

"This 'kid' will do great things, General." Sue said. "He's got powers and an incredibly brave heart—"

"Awwww, sis, I don't know what to say—"

"But he needs to use them responsibly and as his tutor I will take care of that. I promise I'll keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, my fault for expecting something else."

"And I trust Major Grimm to keep an eye on the rest of ya, at least." Ross and Ben exchanged a salute once more. "Still, me and the big guys in Washington agreed that you're a little understaffed at the moment, so we thought you could use some help."

A man and a woman came out of the elevator. She was a very dignified and serious woman who wore her brown hair in an ordered ponytail. The man looked much more easy going and wore long blonde hair and a full beard. He swaggered out of the doors with a pleasant smile on his face.

"I'm Doctor Donald Blake and this is my wife, Doctor Jane Foster. It's a pleasure to meet you a—" He then realized that while he had rehearsed the speech pretty well, he didn't think about where he had to stop and so the man was offering a handshake to thin air. "Oh."

"For what matters, I thought you were doing pretty well, honey." Jane said as she patted in a detached way her husband's back.

"It's a pleasure to have you both on board." Reed stretched out his hand to shake Doctor Blake's. He looked down and he looked like his jaw was going to drop.

After the General left and they had the time to show the doctors their equipment, Sue was back again looking outside that window she thankfully didn't smash with her powers. Reed walked to her side and the two stayed for a few minutes just staring at the city they helped to save, without saying a word. There was some sort of intimacy in their silence together. There was a lot of they could've said to each other but they had spent together that absurdly important day and there was nothing else they could add. Each of them could've said of how much proud they were.

Each of them could've offered apologies of some kind.

Or asked what to do next.

Until Reed found something to say that none of them had thought until that moment. "I...I'm sorry I couldn't show you the universe the way I wanted."

"You showed me another one, though. I think it means something."

"You're...Regretting following me in this?"

Sue took one step closer to Reed. "I don't want to be anywhere else." She leaned her head against his shoudler and they silently kept their watch, wondering where they would go next.

* * *

That night, the man entering the office of one of the richest men of America knew that what he held in his briefcase was worth much more than money.

What they get ahold of was power in its purest form.

Both men knew power when they saw it and they both appreciated it. When both of them heard of that silly little group of would-be saviours, they knew they were the only ones to realize what their existence and that experiment truly meant.

The world was changing and when the man looked at the door of his boss' office, he knew that both of them changed with it.

He knocked three times and then opened. The office was even more opulent than the last time he saw it: Its glass walls were designed to flood the interiors with natural light and created an eerie atmosphere when the lights of the city had to suffice.

"I trust that you have it?" The boss was standing with his back turned, looking outside. He could see all of New York from out there. Just as he liked.

"Yes. It wasn't easy to obtain but here it is." He held up the briefcase. "Fifteen samples of the Nevada soil. Taken directly from the site of Richards' experiment."

The other man didn't turn but he could see his reflection and he flashed a wicked smile framed by his sharp cheekbones. "Excellent, Philip. I believe that we can do even greater things now. Leave the briefcase here. You won't be contacted until further notice." He pointed at his side still looking at the city and the man left the briefcase where he was instructed to.

"How's your daughter, Philip?" The man asked and his heart skipped a few beats.

"She's fine, sir." He tried to keep calm and just smoothened his tie. That's what his boss valued: Strength in dignity. Mostly strength.

"Good, good...What we're about to do could help her as well, Philip. Don't forget that. The OZ project is off to a great start thanks to you. You can go now."

"Good night, Mr. Osborn."

Philip closed the door behind him and let out a sigh of relief. As he entered the elevator he started giggling until it turned in a sinister laughter.

He got away with it.

It was true that Osborn understood the value of what they've come into possession.

Emphasis on _they._

"Great things, indeed, Mr. Osborn." The man reached for his pocket and took a small clay doll. It began to dance as it stood on the palm of his hand. "Great things, indeed."


End file.
